TRIAL BY FIRE
by Twigman242
Summary: When Lance Corporal Forrest is infected with Phazon by Dark Samus on Norion during the invasion, can he hold it together not just for his squad on the front line, but his family back home? M rating because I'm too scared to lower it to a T.
1. Chapter 1 - Out of the frying pan

**TRIAL BY FIRE**

Chapter 1 - Out of the Frying Pan…

"Lets go lets go!" Was the first words that registered in my head when my battalion and I looked at the alarm on the wall as it sounded. We were under attack.

I was a member of the 142nd drop battalion, 7th fleet stationed on Norion. Standing outside one on one of the many large platforms overlooking the canyon in Sector Zero (1) we were having an initial brief about an upcoming deployment to the Fólkvangr Region to suppress irregular pirate forces taking vast swathes of Federation space. As a drop unit we are equipped with jetpacks and jump out of an Aries class transport from about 200 feet right into the thick of the enemy's ranks, or just behind them. We are known for going out there and taking the fight to them. Not the other way around.

The first couple of moments were manic, people trying to find other members of their squad before double timing it to a designated defensive position. Needless to say, as drop troops we don't practice base defence drills for areas like planets, the most we train for in defensive roles is shipboard combat against pirate boarding vessels where our jetpacks give us a huge advantage in agility and speed in hand to hand combat. Ultimately though this doesn't appear to matter, as we will be battling in this environment anyway.

"Alright, squad number!"

"One!"

"Two!"  
"Three!"  
"Four!"  
"Five!"  
"Six!"  
"Seven!"  
"Eight!"  
"Nine!"  
"Ten!"  
"Eleven!"  
"Twelve sergeant!"

"Two ranks now, double time follow me!"

Ten seconds is all it takes to affirm that the twelve of us are here and for the next order to come through. I'm close to the bottom of the ranking tree, a Lance Corporal myself.

It's been less than two minutes since the siren went off, and us as a squad have left the platform and are running through one of the many corridors towards generator Bravo, where we would be linking up with a small PED squad to defend said generator. At that moment however, we heard the first of the Hydra Multiturrets starting up, and thats when I felt the unease kicking in. I have been in battle before and so has the rest of my squad, but we have never even heard of a pirate attack on a military stronghold the size of Norion, let alone been in one.

"Pick up the pace marines! They only need to take out one generator and we've lost the support from the orbital cannon!" Was the ever calm voice from Sgt. Campbell coming over the intercom. "I will not accept it being generator B being the one which goes offline!"

That resulted in a noticeable speed up in our already fast jog. Almost there, one more corner and then we're at the docking bay for the generator, another open platform.

"Foxtrot-five-three zulu-one-two where the hell are you!?" Was a sudden, raw sounding shout over the radio. "They're all over us! They've knocked out the generator and pushed us out onto the docking platform!"

Normally the squad IC (2) would relay what to say next to the rifleman who's in charge of the radio, yet the situation here was dire enough for Campbell to give a direct reply; "Zulu-one-two this is Foxtrot-five-three twenty seconds away, out!"

"Marines lock and load, engage and destroy all targets! Battle formation airburst!" Campbell at the front fired a single shot at the shielded door in front to open it, and for us to rush through onto the open platform.

Battle formation airburst changed all our perceptions about the opening of the battle. It requires the front rank and the IC to engage their jetpacks and leap forwards ahead of the rest of the squad to clear a path. The rest then fan out into the open space and attempt a pincer movement, bypassing any obstacles between us and them. We were no longer defending the generator, we were assaulting the pirates who were attempting to entrench themselves in the generator. This is what we're good at, this is where we come into our own.

The door opens and instantly the fins holding the jets unfold from their stowed position on the backpacks of the marines in front of me. In less time it takes me to take a pace they've already jumped ahead by several meters, and the unfortunate vanguard pirate in front of us was hit by a hale of assault rifle fire. As I am now the front rank on the left hand side it is up to me to lead the rest of the men in my column around the left flank. I now unfurl my own jets and take a small hop to the left, around a large storage container. Right into the path of an advanced aerotrooper.

"Left side second man take lead!" Is my order to the man behind me to take my place in front while I deal with the aerotrooper.

Huge, red and brown hide, it's own jetpack and thick dark green armour impervious to the beam attacks from my rifle. The only was I can see to defeat this thing is to get up close and personal in hand to hand combat. Time to mount the bayonet.

First thing to do is enrage it so it only targets me, otherwise it can wreck havoc with the rest of our relief squad with its rocket pods and beams. Easily done, accelerate into it and essentially rugby tackle it over the edge, which is what I then do. I open my jetpack to its fullest extent, to make myself appear as large as possible and attempt to startle it as well. I am less then 10 feet away when I open the throttle on the rockets and grab the 8ft tall pirate (actually small by their standards) around its neck, this manoeuvre actually taking us off the platform, something which I'd thought would require me dragging it.

What happened next was just a blur, the pirate engaging his own jetpack in an attempt to stabilise before we hit the bottom of the canyon below us. However I switch my rifle's mode to bayonet and a small energy knife forms at the end of my sight at the top of the rifle. I attempt to use this to stab it in the space between its chest armour and helmet. However before I can, (it was difficult to do, spinning through the air at that speed!) I have been thrown off by the pirate. Levelling off I find myself with an angry pirate trying to hit me with its rocket pods, as my proximity alarm tells me somethings just brushed by my head. With no better plan than to stab it in its neck I attempt to jump back on it. The space pirates may be three times the mass of a person and nothing but muscle, but damn they can be tough to keep a lock on.

Our deadly dance of me trying to grab his armour and him constantly dodging took us back over the platform. I was hit several times with his beams, losing almost an entire energy tank. It appears I picked a fight with a young trooper, not yet experienced enough to hit me with any rockets or gel-bombs. I count myself lucky there, and for its apparent lack of wanting to engage in close quarters where it could easily overpower me. Needing to end this now, I make a feint to the left, while preparing to leap right. The pirate falls for it and finds himself with my right hand latched onto his collar and the left with the rifle plunging the bayonet in his neck. Disengaging my jets to save some fuel and planning on using his jets to keep us both airborne, the pirates jets also turn off. I quickly try to pull the bayonet out of the very clearly dying pirate. Jammed. I guess we have about two seconds before we hit the floor so I manoeuvre our bodies to use his as a sort of cushion. This plan works - barely. There's a huge jolt through my skeleton as we hit the floor. Not my best landing, but then again I've never been in this hunched over position with one arm stuck to a space pirate. Thank god for all those practice jumps.

A series of purple bolts just missing me coming from the front makes me realise the sudden new predicament I've landed myself into: the crossfire between the assaulting marines and the remaining pirate forces. By the looks of it only a pair of pirate militia are left anyway. Just yanking on the rifle isn't appearing to work and I can't just disengage the energy knife because of a flaw in the rifles design - the bayonet must be clear of any obstructions to retract. I give a loud sigh of extreme irritation and in my adrenaline fuelled state make the decision to actually let go off my primary weapon. Counting myself lucky that I haven't been hit by either the poorly armed militia or the marines yet, I quickly move myself so that I've got one foot holding the dead aerotrooper still by the head and then use both hands to pull my rifle free. The pirate's blood all over the rifle and my hands don't make it an easy task and I keep loosing my grip, but eventually it gives and with a bone sickening crunch, making me fall backwards. I realise that I had actually pulled out half the pirate's collarbone. Deciding that now wasn't the best time to remove a large chunk of bone on the end of my rifle I make a dash behind one of the storage containers, where theres three other marines also taking cover; rifleman Mills, rocketman (literally fires rockets for a day job) Arbuckle and the sergeant.

"Finished dancing with that pirate then PED marine? I also think your radio's bust!" he yelled at me through our visors and over the sound of the pirate invasion.

The reference to PED marine was due to my apparent stubbornness issues. PED marines are allegedly indestructible when in hypermode, and I do things they'd be able to get away with due to said indestructibility. In my defence however, I take the only action I can see.

The radio however must have been knocked offline from one of the pirates many particle cannon shots. Which means that…

"With no generator left to defend we're going to have to pick another fight. If your radios gone I am going to have to leave you here with the PED squad, not that you'll mind!"

"Sarge really? You're actually doing this?" I exclaimed in disbelief. Yes it may be protocol to leave a marine without a functional radio in a harbour area (3) or safer place than the front line, but I didn't have the confidence in them to survive any more hand to hand combat. I was having visions of Mews or one of the other recent additions to Foxtrot-five-three pinned beneath a pirate and me having to do some more rugby tackling. Campbell however, wasn't having any of it.

"You heard me. I cannot be responsible for a marine who cannot reliably hear a command. He leaned in closer to me so he could lower his voice to a volume more appropriate to a private talk. "I also promised Izzy I'd keep you safe, or has that pirate knocked some brain cells out as well as the radio up there? I can't keep that promise with you not able to hear."

I could feel my shoulders drop and I tilted my head back before letting out a sigh. "Yes sergeant." There was no way around it. Isabelle was my girlfriend back on Daiban (4), I met her after I had joined the GFMC but every time I came back on leave she'd latch onto me and not let go. Izzy goes to the barracks every week with other marine families to see what our current status is. It can take a couple of days for a surprise engagement to filter through the system, but this event should already be raising alarms through the emergency frequencies.

I could just imagine her pleading with me again to leave the corps when I get back next, only to have me tell her that I haven't served the minimum length of 4 years yet. Now that I think about it, she'll hear about this battle before the next service update, with a planet like Norion under attack its going to throw the rest of the Federation into a defensive stance.

"Good man." Leaning around me to look at the pirates and then turning back around; "Arbuckle! I thought I told you to finish off the militia! Theres still one left I can see!"

"Apologies sarge!" And he very simply jumped the storage container and I heard a missile go off with a near instant explosion accompanying it. Arbuckle is one of the stingiest grunts I know when it comes to ammo, so he was probably expecting another marine to finish off the last of the pirates before he needed to use another missile. However he is also the most effective yes-man in the squad, accepting orders without a second thought.

There was a second of nothing but background noise before Mills began moving around the container and Campbell turned to me; "he's called clear, we're going to link up with Zulu-one-two, follow Mills."

Moving around the container as well, still very much annoyed that I'd be missing the rest of the battle I decide to take a good look around at the surroundings for the first time. Littered around us is pirate bodies, 10 foot tall storage containers and evidence of a massive firefight everywhere. Dents in the Jovian glass floor, cracks on the roof and scorch marks practically everywhere. The dense forest surrounding the canyon was on fire in numerous places and all over there were Federation Stiletto-class fighters engaging the pirate Fang-class. I allowed myself a smile despite the situation at the lack of any bodies belonging to a marine.

I look around at the collection of soldiers around us. 18 in all. That means there is 5 PEDs among us.

Stepping forwards towards a marine with gold accents on his shoulder, Campbell begins talking to what appears to be the IC of the PED marines. An officer. Usually I'd be able to hear what they're saying over the radio, but as mine is busted I really am out of the loop.

Someone knocks my arm and I turn to find that there is a PED marine standing there. Before he can say anything however…

"Foxtrot-five-three change of plan! We're to go to the cargo hub and provide a relief force to a besieged squad! Any questions?"

"Why the change in plan? Can't we bring the generator back online?" Corporal Clark spoke up. It wasn't usual to not speak over the radio to each other but I respected them for trying to keep me informed.

"Tech isn't our area. Anyway…" Campbell's visor faced me now, "...Hunter Rundas is coming to assist."

I felt my jaw drop.

XXXXXXXXXX

(1) - Just to remind everyone (including myself), the sector in Norion in which you land is called Sector Zero, not the place of the same name from Other M!

(2) - IC = In Command, in this squads case sergeant Campbell is the IC, 2/IC is the second in command. At this point I haven't decided who the 2/IC is.

(3) - A harbour area is a "position established to provide safety during an extended halt."

(4) - Capital planet of the Galactic Federation.

XXXXXXXXXX

A/N - First chapter of a very planned story! I'm releasing this chapter with one from the How To Train Your Dragon universe, just to see how things go. Is the chapter too long? Too technical? Boring even? Please let me know and I'll (attempt to) do better in coming chapters!


	2. Chapter 2 - And into the fire

**TRIAL BY FIRE**

 **CHAPTER 2 - …AND INTO THE FIRE**

Hunter Rundas is a Phrygisian who turned his talents from ice mining to bounty hunting. Rumour has it he's kept the head of each target he's ever hunted, and has never failed.

My original squad left quickly, leaving me with the PED's. I feel like a small child who's being ganged up on when three of them eye me up. The man in the middle stows his rifle before crossing his arms and saying through his microphone; "That was some cool stuff, hand to hand combat with an aero pirate." He says it almost cockily, as if he could one up me.

I reply instantly, not wanting to give this marine any satisfaction from mocking me. "I took the only action I saw possible, my job is assault and that is what I did."

The officer this time takes a step forward, sharply inputting "Horny stop taking the piss, corporal you'd best clear your rifle, you're no use to us with it in that state. There will be _no_ reckless close quarters engagements while you're under my command. Hop to it, rest of you start throwing these bastards over the side."

I doubt that "Horny" is the actual marines name, more likely a nickname formed within such a close-knit unit. I drop to one knee and attempt to pull the damned collarbone off the end of the blade. It takes several painstaking minutes before I wriggle it off, and by then the adrenaline has mainly worn off and I'm sweating like a pig.

I stow my rifle before picking up bits of pirate armour and weapons just strewn about before throwing them over as well. I don't even attempt to lift any pirates, as its taking 4 marines just to drag a single one.

At that moment, a red siren above the door leading to the Plasma Generator started to spin, with and initial audible warning before being silent. The internal mirror however kept spinning. Seems like the generator B is back up?

The other marines also pick up on the siren and look at each other, a couple of them shrugging their shoulders. It's not too long before Rundas himself flies from above the sides of the valley (so he got in via the air vents) and drops in front of us. It's a strange sight, seeing him freeze nothing into a platform he rides on before it almost instantly evaporates back into nothing.

He talks with a rough voice, as if his throat is made from sandpaper. "Captain! I need one of your marines to see the other hunters and activate the generators, I had to use a dead fleet trooper's hand to reactivate it."

The captain look about his 4 marines. Is it too much to hope to go and meet some other bounty hunters? Apparently it is as capt nods to horny and says "take the sergeant here, he'll survive anything thrown at him."

"Which is exactly why he should stay here and defend against any counter attacks. I'll take the assault marine, may need him for surprising."

"I can't let you do that, he has a dead radio so he must stay here."

Rundas' voice drops low. Barely audible over the background. He takes a step towards the captain, who holds his ground. "Don't be the one who looses us this battle. Ground command has been destroyed so there's no way to reassign units. I _am_ taking the initiative and I _am_ taking this marine. He can take care of himself, I don't know any marines who can hold their own in an air to air engagement against an aerotrooper. Yes I did see that while on my way to the generator. I also know about his radio, I just tried pinging him."

The captain doesn't say anything for a few seconds before asking "Can you guarantee his safety?"

Rundas gives a Phrygisian equivalent of a snort, "I can guarantee his life no more than you could those men back in the generator room. I will give him a radio so he can communicate with us, however."

Wow. So not only am I going to fight alongside a bounty hunter but I get to join their radio net?

Rundas talks to me, "What is your name marine?" I come to attention, "Lance Corporal Forrest, Sir!"

"Ready for some action?" He asks, his voice still like rough sandpaper.

I look at the captain, who shrugs his shoulders and, defeated, says "go with him, I'm not about to win an argument with an adamant Phrygisian."

I turn back to Rundas and give a nod, "I'm ready."

"Right then, Ghor is struggling to interface with some systems, he's not tasked with reactivating any generators but you can help him. We'll meet up with Gandrayda along the way, she has a spare radio. Lets go!" And with that, he jumped off the side of the platform and flew off. I grin wildly under my helmet and take a couple of steps back before taking a running jump off the platform too and fly after him, in the direction of generator C.

We land on a multiturret pad, some distance from C.

"Gandrayda is through there. She knows theres a marine covered in blood and bone coming for a radio. Theres pirates on the other side of that door, though after earlier I'd say that they are more fragile than they appear." And with that, he took off after some pirate ATCs, no questions asked.

I check my sensors, and there is a large orange blotch to the left of the door. Well I'm not getting any younger, so I open the door and run through…into the path of some advancing pirates. Great.

I hide behind a storage crate as a hail of fire falls upon me, and suddenly ceases, and a pirate body flies over my head. Seriously, what has that kind of strength!?

I take a risk and roll out from behind my cover, then quickly raise my rifle in the direction of the pirates before nearly dropping it in surprise. Right here in front of me was a single pirate utterly destroying all the others in seconds. It then points its arm cannon at me, before retracting it's pincers and lowering it. Is this pirate defecting? Has that ever happened before?

Then, it emanates a dark pink cloud with purple static discharges flying off, before morphing into Gandrayda and letting loose a giggle. I realise that I hadn't actually moved from my crouched position while she was shape-shifting.

I stand and she walks over, throwing a small chip at me (which I barely manage to catch) and walking past me.

"I want that back when we're done, couldn't have you listening in on all our private chats now could we marine?" To my surprise, she morphs into an assault marine before kicking off down the corridor toward C. I then look at radio, a small black rectangle which I put on the side of my helmet. My radio crackles for a moment before I hear Rundas speak; "You're online, now Ghor requires assistance in the Cargo Hub, go!"

The radio appears to be an open net for all the bounty hunters, as I then hear a voice who I presume to be Ghor come on. "You might want to hurry marine, there's a squad here getting slaughtered!" It was said very aggressively and that breaks me into a run.

Cargo Hub…my squad, damn!

The hub is a couple minutes run away. Less if I boost through the long corridors. All around me the battle rages and I ignore most of the engagements. I'm sure several people tried to hail me as I passed them to ask for a hand, but I never received them. Thats not to say I didn't ignore pirates in my way, several fell before my weapons sights and another was knocked down a power shaft to its death.

It is virtually no time before I am on the hub's doorstep. I open the door and a whole new scene appears before me. It's a whole new level of violence, marines missing parts of their armour suits, two or three pirates ganging up on a single marine and…this makes me gag.

A pair of dead marines. I run past them fast enough so that I can't identify their service numbers. My concern is quickly pushed aside by a level of anger and rage I have not felt before. Ghor in a massive armour suit is savagely attacking a Berserker Lord, which is holding up surprising well under the onslaught. Right in front of me there is a man pinned beneath a pirate who appears to be having fun scaring him to death. Fuelled with rage, I use my apparent trademark strike: rugby tackle them with jetpack on maximum thrust.

I shoot past several people, one of them being Campbell. He is completely livid, bellowing at me. I take no notice however, in the heat of battle with blood pumping through my veins, blotting out all other noise.

I reach them just in time, the pirate appears ready to deliver its ultimatum. I however have other plans for the pirate, impacting it on the left side of its ribcage with such force I can feel several of it's ribs snapping. It lets loose a massive roar of pain as we hit the floor and roll into a wall. I however, cannot get complacent. As badly wounded as this foe is, it is still a formidable enemy and can still easily best me if I'm not careful. Thus I drop my rifle, and pound it on its bad side, immobilising it in pain. I then grab one of my energy grenades and place it next to the pirate so it can't see the impending doom. Quickly grabbing my rifle I jump back 20 or so meters outside the blast radius, and watch as bits of pirate rain down on us.

I turn around, in search of another enemy to dual. Ghor has been pinned to a wall by the Berserker Lord, and what marines are left of my squad are mopping up the pirates. I take aim at one, missile resistant trooper and fire my first rounds of the battle. Other marines have the same idea and in seconds the final pirate is neutralised, sent to whatever place they call Hell.

"Marine! Get out of the way, I'm ending this!" comes Ghor's raw shout.

Thankfully no-one was close to the wall Ghor pinned against, we all kept well away from their private battle. I watched as Ghor kicked the overgrown pirate away from him and then launched a devastating alpha strike; missiles, lasers, beams, everything conceivable he used in one go. The result was the toughest ground troop the pirates could offer, except this one now had several holes in it.

This is when I notice Campbell storming over to me. He rips his helmet off and starts shouting at the top of his voice, something about disobeying a direct order and insubordination. I don't really pay much attention as I'm still cooling off and watching Ghor lumber over. He dismounts his battlemech and speaks to the sergeant directly. He sounds much calmer and now that he isn't attached to his suit.

"Do not blame the trooper, I was struggling to interface with some systems and requested help. Bounty Hunter Rundas took him and sent him here to assist me. I heard you shout something about a lack of a working radio, he has an external one so he is in communication with us. Is that satisfactory?"

The sergeant glares at him, before saying, "No. It is not, but the situation is better than I originally guessed. I supposed it is good that you turned up because we would have lost at least one more man before subduing that pirate. However, don't think this will just be forgotten about, we _will_ discuss this later."

I nod to him before questioning the Bounty Hunter who was now tending to his armour suit, which is exhausting massive quantities of steam from it's back.

"What problems were you having?"

"Oh right," he begins climbing back into the cockpit, "I need access…"

Bring on the personality shift

"to the control panel to the orbital cannon so we don't get vaporised!"

Thats right, something I've been ignoring thats been over the base-wide speakers is Aurora Unit 242 saying that there's going to be a meteor strike in 3 minutes. I'd best unlock that door.

I sprint to the massive door, noting that all three generator signs are lit green, before accessing the panel to the left. Normally, I wouldn't have clearance to open the door to the most powerful weapon on the planet, but I can send a request to the planet's Aurora Unit - 486 - to unlock it for me. Ghor likely hasn't been given clearance for this door otherwise he wouldn't have a problem. I put my service number in and verify that it is me, before getting an almost instant response: the access to the orbital cannon lift is open.

I move to the side to let Ghor's massive suit past, and he walks onto a lift where Rundas and Gandrayda are already waiting.

"Do not let anyone past, the fate of the planet depends on it", Ghor growls at me. Though not a second later I get a message on my HUD (so this radio supports texts too?) saying "Except me. S.A."

The lift is about to go, when an orange and red blur passes in front of my visor. On a normal day I would be going crazy in that 4 of the most famous Bounty Hunters in the galaxy were here in front of me, including _the_ Samus Aran, the most famous of them all.

I hit the emergency lockdown, sealing them in. Nothing short of an orbital strike now is getting through this way, several Jovian Steel blast doors now blocking the way.

Before I can relax though, an explosion happens behind me and I spin round.

I almost shit myself, right there and then.

Dark Samus.

I figure that she came to stop the hunters from activating the cannon, and arrived seconds late.

In her anger, she unleashes an energy wave and blows away every single marine over there. Now in my anger I let loose my rifle on fully automatic, to no avail. They simply bounce right off her.

My attempted bravery has backfired. I just made myself her primary target. Regardless I keep my finger on the trigger and advance. I think that she will just leave if I lay down enough fire. I think wrong. She's properly mad now.

She raises her arm cannon and fires a blast at me, throwing me back to where I started; by the cannon control. It's knocked the wind out of me, and my HUD reports to me that I have less than one energy tank left. I stand back up and resume firing, Dark Samus slowly floating over, arm cannon raised and my shots ricocheting all over the place. She begins charging her cannon for the final blow. However before she releases it, she cocks her head to her right and hesitates for a second before…manic laughter?

*Click*. Dead man's click. I'm out of ammunition. Before I warn the hunters about the threat, her cannon stops charging and dissipates. My relief however, is short lived. I am sprayed with hundreds of blue pellets and I am re-thrown against the wall, before seeing a deep blue and blacking out, only hearing Dark Samus' laughter as she leaves for the hunters above me.

I have as good as killed us all.

 **XXXXXXXXXX**

 **I changed the order of events from the game a little here, Ghor enters the lift from the same side as Samus, and there is no blue-shielded door between the Cargo Hub and lift, otherwise Ghor wouldn't be able to get through.**

 **I also have given the hunters up in the control room a little more time so Forrest and Dark Samus can have their little scene. After that, she leaves and infects the hunters just like in the game.**

 **Thanks for reading**


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